Smartphone & Pocket PC Best Software Awards 2008
The preliminary list of nominees for the Best Software Awards for 2008 have been posted and are open for review and feedback for the next three weeks. If you have the time, review the list and make some recommendations of software that you think should be included in the list. All recommendations received before July 16th will be considered and the list will be finalized on July 21st.
I will be participating again in this year's judging and have started pouring over the list to figure out the software I will review. If there's some software you'd like for me to review in this year's awards, let me know. I'm not going to review nearly so much software this year as I did last year and I hope to do a more thorough job in evaluating the software and posting comparative articles about the software I review.
Sidebar
I don't know how many of you have ever read the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine, but I've recently signed up to receive the electronic version of the magazine through Zinio. If you've never had the chance to read one of these magazines, go check out the free Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazines that are offered on Zinio's website. If you like what you see, you can sign up to receive 3 issues for only $5.00 - that's a pretty good deal.
I love magazines, but several years ago, in an effort to simplify my life and reduce the clutter around my home, I canceled all my magazine subscriptions. Lately I've been trying out Zinio to see if I can enjoy electronic magazines Subscribing to magazines through Zinio is kind of a compromise to my earlier decision - I reduce the clutter, but don't necessary simplify my life 
I just wish Zinio had a Pocket PC application. . .
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Dear Prof. Julie,
Thanks for posting about Zinio and the great deal on Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine. You're among thousands of others enjoying digital magazines online and off line, without the clutter, and sparing trees while they're at it.
Our Zinio Labs team is working aggressively to develop new innovations for people like you. We want to hear what you like, don't like, and would like to see - so keep the comments coming.
We'd also love to have you join our ongoing dialogue on our Facebook group "I read, therefore, I Zinio.
Read on,
Adam Kadleck
Director of Customer Service
Zinio, LLC
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Hey Adam! Thanks for stopping by. Can't you share some of the iPhone goodness you've recently rolled out to the Windows Mobile device community? Pocket PCs can read electronic media online just as well as any iPhone, and we've been doing it quite a bit longer!
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I've been interested in PPC security for some time and I have a question about the selection criteria. The winner in 2007 was 1-Pass from Omega One and I see it's nominated again in 2008. Although it may be an excellent program it's own web site states that it does not work on Wm5 and Wm6 devices. How do the judges rate a program as "the best" when it doesn't work on most current devices that the majority of people use in their day to day activities? I don't care if it works great on my PPC that's been in my dresser drawer for 2 years.
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You raise a very good question....and one I raised earlier this month to the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Software Awards organizers.
Any Pocket PC software, no matter how good it is, really should not be in the list of nominees if the software is not at least compatible with the WM5.0 operating system. I have had 3 software applications removed from this year's nominees for that reason. It is unfortunate to remove good software from consideration, but if the software has not been updated to WM5.0, the software has become obsolete to many windows mobile device owners.
If you see applications that are not able to run on WM5.0 devices, please let us know about them. The list of nominees is created from user input and over the years the list has gotten enormous! We rely on user input to help us clean up the list....cleaning up the list involves making sure the software that deserves consideration is included in the list and the software that should no longer be considered be removed from the list.
You'll note that the link I included for you to recommend software actually includes 4 options:
o Nominate a product
o Suggest changing the category of a product
o Suggest a new category
o Suggest that a nominated product be withdrawn from consideration
For the Omega One product as well as any others you might notice, please use the link above to suggest that the product be withdrawn from consideration.Reply to this
Thanks for the additional information, I have filled out the form and submitted it.
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You wrote "We rely on user input to help us clean up the list....cleaning up the list involves making sure the software that deserves consideration is included in the list and the software that should no longer be considered be removed from the list." which raises a question. I'm not trying to be critical of the review process but if each piece of software is being reviewed by someone or some group for the magazines contest how is it that they don't know it's not compatible with Wm5? I assume the software is tested primarily on new devices and if this software doesn't work, how does a judge determine its value?
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This list is quite large and it is difficult for the volunteer judges to perform a preliminary review of all the software before the nominees are locked in. After the nominees are locked in, during judging, it is too late to seek out replacement nominees if we find software in the list that shouldn't be there.
As a judge, if I come across software that is not WM5.0 compatible, I will not give high scores to that software - even though I still use a windows mobile 2003 device (I use my WM5.0 devices too). Unfortunately, if any software in my list should not be there, I will have wasted my time looking at obsolete software which may have prevented me from evaluating a more appropriate software.
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